IBLOG SPACE

Details of HTC‘s latest peripheral, the HTC Conference Speaker, have been revealed by the FCC, though the Bluetooth speakerphone isn’t entirely as sensible as the business-centric name might suggest. A UFO-styled combination of brushed metal and plastic, the Conference Speaker can be used as a standalone mono speakerphone for up to 10hrs of hands-free calling, or a pair of them can be linked wirelessly for stereo audio playback. HTC reckons a two hour charge is good for up to 8hrs of music playback, and if your budget – or the petty cash in your office – only stretches to a single unit there’s support for mono playback too. Standby time is 200hrs, and the Conference Speaker recharges via a regular microUSB port so you can use the same AC adapter as came with your phone. Range is 10m and the device can retain pairing information for up to eight phones (but be actively connected to only one at a time). Obviously no word on pricing or availability, but we’re guessing HTC will pull the

Apple’s iPhone 4S has gone on sale in the UK, with Apple Stores and key carrier stores opening at 8am local time to offer the coveted fifth-gen smartphone. Meanwhile, deliveries of pre-ordered iPhone 4S units will take place today, while the US waits eagerly for its turn in a few hours time. The handset looks just like its predecessor, but inside everything’s new with a dual-core Apple A5 chipset, 8-megapixel camera and World Phone connectivity. If you didn’t get in on the pre-order action before, the iPhone 4S available for purchase online direct from Apple. The company is only offering the unlocked, SIM-free (and thus unsubsidized) versions itself, priced at £499 for the 16GB, £599 for the 32GB and $699 for the 64GB. If you’d prefer a contract, Vodafone, Orange, Three and T-Mobile are all offering the handset, while O2 is initially limiting sales to existing subscribers. To get up to speed on the whole iPhone 4S experience, check out our full review of the handset and then turn t

An Australian judge has rejected Apple‘s attempt to have Samsung forced to give the Cupertino company advance notice of new product launches, as well as have limitations placed on tablets other than the Galaxy Tab 10.1. Speaking of yesterday’s preliminary sales injunction ruling, Justice Annabelle Bennett told Apple that “it doesn’t apply to any other player in the marketplace,” WSJ reports, dismissing requests to extend the decision to future models Samsung might release. Apple, SMH reports, argued that Samsung was more than likely to whip up a new version of the contentious tablet, and demanded that the same limitations as applied to the Galaxy Tab 10.1 should be extended to protect its IP from future potential infractions. “Samsung says Galaxy Tab 10.1, we say any tablet device. We know what may well come is another version of the tablet” the Apple legal team argued. “It’s up to our friends as to how they name it, whether they call it the Galaxy Tab 10.1 or 10.2 or 10.1s or what

Microsoft’s acquisition of Skype has been finalized, bringing the VoIP service under the software company’s wing in a deal worth $8.5bn. Skype CEO Tony Bates will now be president of the Skype Division at Microsoft, but in a separate blog post reiterates that the new owner “is committed to the ubiquity of the Skype experience” and that “communication across every device and every platform will remain a primary focus.” Initially, then, Skype will continue to be available through the current clients: for Windows and Mac on the desktop, as well as iPad, iPhone, Android and other mobile platforms. Ironically Microsoft’s own Windows Phone isn’t included in that latter category, at least not yet, and we’re guessing one of the key priorities at the new division is to remedy that situation. Beyond that, though, Microsoft says that the VoIP system “will also be integrated across an array of Microsoft products to broaden Skype’s reach and accelerate its growth as a fundamental way people com

Samsung has been having one whole heck of a lot of trouble with Apple accusing them of infringing on patents around the world, this newest accusation holding sway in none other than our home turf, the USA. Samsung could handle a ban in Austrailia for Galaxy Tabs, certainly no tabs in Germany isn’t a hassle when it comes down to it, but America? This could be some big trouble. U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh this week has said that Samsung’s Galaxy Tab tablets DO infringe on Apple’s iPad patents, but made sure to note that Apple will have a problem proving the validity of the patents in question. Apple isn’t only coming down on Samsung in the tablet department, they’re also trying to chop down some Androids in the 4G LTE department – though Verizon isn’t having any of that. And of course they wouldn’t! Devices don’t get banned here in the USA, do they? Why yes, yes they do. When Apple sues a group and says that they “slavishly” copied their own designs, well, then, the courts listen. Jus

For those of you following the sale of Hulu – oh wait, you didn’t know Hulu was for sale? Well it was, not it isn’t. Follow us for a minute or two as we run down the path from original sale to bidders to bidders dropping out to Hulu just saying “fine, forget about it, I’ll just keep to myself!” It’s all very dramatic. It all started back in June when Hulu was rumored to be putting themselves up for sale with Yahoo! tipped as a bidder. It was July that Microsoft dropped out of the bidding war, no more Windows on the Glee! toter. July also had Amazon, AT&T, and Verizon Wireless thinking about bidding on Hulu, but as it turns out, carriers and keepers of the books and movies of the world not ending up able to reach any sort of agreement on the big H. DirecTV, Starz, and Netflix got in on the war, but they clashed opinions and wants to the max. Then there’s the most recent news from September where we heard that there were too many low ball bids to continue the sale successfully. T

It’s official, ladies and gentlemen, Google’s mobile operating system Android FINALLY has their own Twitter user handle: @Android. How about that? How on earth they managed to stay behind the scenes for this long with such a simple name, we do not know, but what we DO know is that this may well lead to quite a few more followers for the group that has the user name @Androids. Can you guess who that is? Today’s tweets from @Android include a short introduction and a tweet leading to the video of the new Ice Cream Sandwich statue being unwrapped. And you might say to yourself, wait, couldn’t that be a fake account? Don’t even worry about that, partner, Google themselves have the confirmation tweet up – this tweet available for your viewing directly below this paragraph. So what’s the deal then, Google, how did this come about? Did someone pick up Android back when Twitter was invented, and only now they were timed out after having not used the account for many many long months? Or did

This week it’s been said by Samsung UK Sales Director Andrew Glass that the upcoming Galaxy Note device “is really good for the female market.” With a gigantic 5.37-inch display and a thin stylus that’s able to be carried by the device itself when not in use, we’ve been thinking that this halfway point between a tablet and a smartphone would be a good shot aimed at basically any set of humans, Glass this week detailed a few ways in which Samsung would be tending to the female market specifically. Does this 1280 x 800 pixel Super AMOLED HD display having 1.4GHz dual-core wielding Note device look like the lady product for you? This isn’t the first time we’ve heard Glass speak in the past few weeks, last time he spoke we found out the true name of the Nexus Prime and that we would be “seeing it in shops sooner than [we] think.” Now this fellow is letting us know that the Galaxy Note will be perfect for all the XY chromos out there amongst us. Will the smartphone/tablet stack up particu

Have you see the view of Google Maps with the buildings that pop out at your face as you’re driving through the city with your mouse clicker? It’s time to take a look. Google this week has enabled MapsGL, an option that will allow you to see 3D buildings rendered to replicate the buildings that are actually standing on site throughout their massive mapping of the earth. Through the power of WebGL, those of you using Firefox beta, Chrome, Safari (if you enable it), and starting today Opera 12 Alpha, can all see the buildings, the lovely, lovely buildings.. You may recognize these buildings if you’re an Android user, as they’ve been active for more than a few weeks now – in fact, I remember seeing them all the way back at Mobile World Congress 2011 in the Google pod, now that I think of it. Now we’ve got it everywhere! Other features relatively new to the web-based version of Google Maps are the swoop transition between Street View and birds-eye view, and the ability to rotate the ma

Google’s 2011 third quarter earnings results are in and they’ve surpassed Wall Street expectations. The company is reporting $9.72 billion in revenue, which is a 33 percent increase from the same quarter last year. GAAP net income came in at $2.73 billion, up from $2.17 billion a year ago. “We had a great quarter,” said Google CEO Larry Page, who has returned to the reigns for the third quarter. During this time, Google has notably announced the acquisition of Motorola Mobility and successfully kicked off its own social network called Google+. Along with the earnings release, Page made it a point to reveal that Google+ now has more than 40 million users. Page also revealed that Android has now reached 190 million activated devices worldwide and that the Chrome web browser now has 200 million users. As for the financial figures, Google-owned sites continued to generate the largest chunk of revenue with $6.74 billion, followed by Google’s partner sites revenues, such as through the

Google released an update today to its Google Translate app for Android that further knocks down language barriers. The Conversation Mode that was launched earlier this year allowed users to speak to the app and then have the app repeat what was said in the target language. However, this feature was only available for English and Spanish conversations. With this latest update, Google is expanding the speech-to-speech translation to 14 languages. The 14 languages now supported by Conversation Mode include Brazilian Portuguese, Czech, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin Chinese, Polish, Russian, and Turkish. The feature, however, is still in alpha and could get a little wonky from background noise and regional accents. Google currently offers text translation for 63 languages and voice input translations for 17 of those languages. To use the feature, you have to click on the microphone icon in the Translate app to speak what you want translated. The app then do

Microsoft revealed today some more details on its Windows 8 developments by discussing the improvements made to its new Task Manager. In a post to the Building Windows 8 blog, group program manager Ryan Haveson explained that the team assessed how people were currently using the Task Manager and then redesigned it with the focus of optimizing for the most common scenarios, using modern information design, and not removing functionality. Of the several tabs across the top of the current Windows Task Manager, Haveson’s team found that most people were using only the first two tabs for simply ending an application or process. Hence, the revamped Task Manager for Windows 8 has this interface simplified and the extra tabs removed so that the utility now looks cleaner while still serving its main purpose: to kill misbehaving apps. A new feature of the Windows 8 Task Manager is the addition of a colorized heat map view that makes it easy to locate which apps are misbehaving and taking up

Over the summer, some reports cropped up suggesting RIM was working on a set-top box that would compete against devices like the Apple TV. Dubbed “BlackBerry Cyclone,” the product would reportedly include Netflix streaming, YouTube content, and all kinds of other features. Soon after that report surfaced, I took to SlashGear to discuss why I believed the device would fail miserably. I told readers that as an enterprise-focused mobile company, it wouldn’t make any sense for RIM to release such a device. And many of you agreed. Now months later, I thought it might be a good time to revisit that device and its viability as RIM’s stock price continues to plummet. If you haven’t been watching Wall Street lately, RIM’s stock price has halved in the last 12 months, and is down nearly 60 percent so far this year. Even worse, the company’s financial performance has disappointed investors as revenue and profit figures continue to decline. Just about everywhere I turn, I find shareholders s

The collection of tasty statues on the front lawn of Google’s headquarters now has a new addition to celebrate the upcoming Android Ice Cream Sandwich update. Originally scheduled for this week, the launch event has now been pushed back to October 19. The joint event with Samsung will be held in Hong Kong and will include the unveiling of Google’s next-gen hero device, the Nexus Prime. Google has generally uploaded videos in the past whenever they erect a new statue, such as with the Honeycomb sculpture as well as the Froyo sculpture, so there will likely be one posting soon. This new Android Ice Cream Sandwich statue has got to be the best one so far and indeed the update itself will be revolutionary for the ecosystem. Android Ice Cream Sandwich statue unboxing Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich will be uniting the smartphone and tablet platforms, bringing many of its new tablet interface features, such as the multitask switcher, to its smartphone interface. For a preview of what to

Apple released iOS 5 to the masses yesterday and if you’re curious how the update performs on an iPhone 4 compared to an iPhone 4 still running iOS 4.3.5, then here’s a video that does a side-by-side speed test. Not only does the video compare two iPhone 4 devices running different iOS versions, it also includes the iPhone 3G running iOS 4.2 and the iPhone 3GS running iOS 4.3. Various features and apps were tested across all four devices with the iPhone 3G unsurprisingly lagging behind most of the time. But it’s pretty close between the two iPhone 4 devices, depending on which feature or app was being launched. Generally, when it came to accessing the iPhone’s settings, Safari, search results, email, camera, and weather app, iOS 5 came out ahead. But the results weren’t as certain when it came to launching games. For instance, starting Angry Birds was slightly faster on iOS 4.3.5 as was launching Fruit Ninja. And with the game Cut the Rope, the iPhone 3GS running iOS 4.3 was by far

Invites have been sent out to those considered worthy of attending what may well be the biggest event in the shared history of Samsung and Google, one taking place LIVE from Hong Kong, China. This event will almost certainly be showing off the newest Android operating system Ice Cream Sandwich working on a Samsung device either called the Nexus Prime or the Galaxy Nexus. One way or another, the 19th of October, Hong Kong (and the 18th of October, USA, for those that understand time zones,) will be the date of the big Samsung Unpacked event that was cancelled last week. Can you even contain your excitement at a time like this?! Samsung and Google have never really done an event that takes place on the other side of the sea and livecast at the same time like this before, the event certainly a gesture of how far reaching this new Android platform will be. Google has only officially revealed a few key points on Ice Cream Sandwich, but rumors on the subject have been running rampant for m

So you say you’d like to make some music with your brand new iPhone 4S or your relatively new iPad 2, yes? What better way then, than with the iRig MIDI, a lovely little Core MIDI interface for all your iDevices including iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch. This device, as you can see, has MIDI in, out, and through, 2 LEDs to show you any activity going on through those ports, and a microUSB port so that you can charge your iOS device while you’re jamming on some tunes. And what’s more? You’ll get some apps that are optimized to work with the device for free! This device may confuse the heck out of you if you’ve never played an electric instrument before – what the heck are those plugs, you might be asking. This device connects your instrument (a keyboard, a guitar or bass, whatever you like) or a microphone if you’re one of those singing types, to your iOS device, where from there you can amplify, distort, and enhance the audio to your delight! That’s what the apps are for, too, you’ll ge

Each time there is a new way to capture media, especially when that means is inexpensive, the world goes nuts trying to see how they can show off their life and times with it. That’s what’s about to happen with this ball camera, the Throwable Panoramic Ball Camera, that is, a project that’s currently Patent Pending and has been in the works, apparently, since back in 2010. The project has progressed to the point here in late 2011 where the designers feel it strong enough to present to the public – just toss it up in the air and at it’s peak – SNAP – you’ve got a complete 360 degree view of the environment the ball is in. How’s that for a new way of seeing things? This is more than a panoramic view, it’s a whole new experience. Can you imagine bringing this ball with you everywhere you went? How about if it connected to your smart device and automatically uploaded images to the web? The possibilities are endless! That’s why we’re asking the “people” involved in this project, Pfeil, Hi

While the Grand Theft Auto game franchise had been around for years before the 2001 release of GTA:III, it was that drive a car and shoot your neighbor installment of the game that really, really made the Rockstar Games-made shooter take off. And now, ten years later, we get to play it on our mobile devices. Grand Theft Auto III has been announced to be coming both to Apple’s iOS mobile operating system AND to a handful of Google’s Android devices as well, though on both platforms there will be device limits. ALSO there’s an action figure in the mix, just incase you want something you can set on your desk while you’re crashing into cop cars and punching prostitutes in the face. Grand Theft Auto III basically started a whole new genre of games in which there’s an entire open world in front of you, just waiting for you to run it over with a stolen vehicle. Currently there is but one GTA game on the mobile platform, that being Chinatown Wars, but alas, it still has the top-down perspect

As you may have heard, Microsoft has a rather large patent portfolio, and over the past few months, they’ve been pressuring groups working with Google-based operating systems to sign licensing deals with them to avoid patent suits. The newest of these up until today was the Microsoft/Samsung deal which included Android devices and a play to have Samsung paying Microsoft per device produced. A similar situation is now occurring with Quanta Computer Inc, this time the agreement including both Android and Google’s Chrome OS. Both parties have indicated that Microsoft will indeed be receiving royalties from Quanta under the agreement, but the amount and means for this exchange have not yet been revealed. Microsoft will likely be twiddling their thumbs over this latest victory, especially since they already long ago eclipsed their Windows Phone 7 earnings with licensing deals from Android-based phones made by manufacturers such as HTC. Horacio Gutierrez, corporate vice president and dep

Dell is betting on Windows 8 as the company’s best chance of tablet success against the iPad, with CEO Michael Dell arguing that the Android slate market “has not developed” as predicted. Speaking at Dell World 2011 this week, V3 reports, Dell described the PC manufacturer as “very aligned with Microsoft around Windows 8″ and teased that “you’ll hear more about Windows 8 from us and see a wide range of products released.” As for Google’s tablet strategy, Dell held off from dismissing Android as a failure in slates but did voice some concerns about growth. “Android is certainly another opportunity as well,” he conceded, “but that market has not developed to the expectations they would have had.” Part of Windows 8′s charm for Dell is the potential ecosystem it allows. “Within the $3 trillion industry that we’re in, the consumer business is worth $250bn” the CEO pointed out, going on to suggest that the company’s attention is “on providing a complete set of solutions to customers, inc

Apple’s sales injunction success over the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia earlier today could have wide-reaching impact on other Android tablets in the country, it’s been suggested, with one of Steve Jobs’ own patents helping strike the killing blow. The IP in question is particularly broad, FOSS Patents points out, and potentially “broad enough in scope that Google and its OEM partners can’t work around them without rendering their products less appealing, or even entirely unappealing, to consumers.” The two patents Samsung fell foul of are No. 2005246219, “Multipoint Touchscreen”, and No. 2009233675, “Touch screen device, method, and graphical user interface for determining commands by applying heuristics.” The latter is the Australian version of US patent No. 7479949, of which Steve Jobs is one of the listed inventors. The US equivalent of each are being used in Apple’s ongoing cases in American courts, with the former targeting Samsung alone while the other is being held aga

Having your circuits exposed, RAM revealed and baseband boggled at is a rite of passage for any smartphone worth its salt, and so it was clear the iPhone 4S would have to suffer the teardown treatment. Apple’s new dualcore smartphone has been vigorously hazed by the screwdriver-toting engineers at iFixit, revealing a larger battery among other things. Well, we say larger: this isn’t some masterpiece of TARDIS-style magical battery accommodation, with the iPhone 4S bigger on the inside. Actually you get a whole extra 0.05 WHrs over the iPhone 4 battery – and no backward compatibility – so there’s obviously some impressive power management going on for the 4S to meet its improved runtime estimates. Unfortunately, Apple has also used its frustrating pentalobe screws, minimizing the likelihood of you having a screwdriver that will actually fit the iPhone 4S casing. Most people won’t be interested in opening their handset up, but we’d at least like the option. Of course, if you’d rather

If you liked the Sony Tablet S and Tablet P but thought you would just hold off until the 3G version hit they are coming, at least in Japan. NTT DoCoMo has announced that on October 28 3G versions of both tablets will hit Japan. The tablets hit the Japanese market on September 17 in WiFi only versions. Other than the addition of 3G, the machines will be the same it seems. The 3G packing Tablet S will have model number SGPT113JP / S and the 3G version of the Tablet P will have part number SGPT211JP / S. The S will run Android 3.2 and have an IPS screen and use the Tegra 2 chipset at 1GHz. The screen is 9.4-inches and it has a resolution of 1280 x 800. It also comes with an IR remote for controlling media. The P tablet will have the same 5.5-inch folding display with a resolution of 1024 x 480. A button press will allow the user to watch only one side of the screen. They both have DLNA compatibility. There is no mention of a date these 3G versions will come to the states.

Corsair has been in the RAM game for computer enthusiast, gamers, and mainstream users looking fro upgrades for a long time. The company also has flash drives, SSDs, and a lot of other hardware that the computer user needs. The company has announced the addition of a large capacity RAM kit for dual and quad channel mainboards. The RAM kit is the 32GB 1866MHz Dominator. The kit includes four screened 8GB DDR3 modules that have the Corsair DHX+ heatsinks attacked. The RAM operates at 1.5V and is designed to run at 1866MHz. The timings on the RAM are 9-10-9-27. Corsair has tested the kit with the upcoming quad channel and current dual channel platforms. The 32GB kit will land this month at a price that will curl your toes. This much RAM will set you back $999, but man will your rig be fast.

If you pick a random bank in your area and drive up to the ATM there is a very good chance that you will find the machine is made by NCR. The company has a huge amount of ATMs in service around the country and the world. NCR has announced that it is teaming up with PayPal and S1 to offer the ability for users to pay a PayPal account holder directly from the ATM. The service will give the ATM user the option of sending money directly from their bank account to a PayPal account holder without having a PayPal account themselves. They just choose the amount to transfer and enter the email of the person that is to get the money and the loot is deducted from the sender account and credited to the seller account immediately. Another benefit for people with PayPal accounts is that NCR says that the ATM payment method “could be” cheaper than other non-PayPal money transfer options. The receiver does have to have a PayPal account to receive funds.

“You expect better of us, I expect better of us.” So RIM co-CEO Mike Lazaridis opened the company’s apologetic BlackBerry press conference this morning, before swiftly pointing out that services have now been “fully restored”. As for compensation, however, fellow co-CEO Jim Balsillie said RIM has no idea, at present, what or even if that could be “Our focus has been 100-percent on getting services restored,” he told investors and journalists, “that’s something we’re going to focus on now, but it hasn’t been our priority overnight.” According to Lazaridis, a dual-redundancy high capacity switch failed in Europe; that should have been handled by a backup system, but that system also collapsed. The failure in Europe resulted in overloading elsewhere. When the system was restarted, processing the backlog took longer than RIM had expected. RIM is still unclear on why the initial switch failed, but says it was “most likely caused by hardware [failure].” In the past 18 months, Lazaridis h

I have talked about the uber geeky and cool motorcycle suits that the UD Replicas company makes before. One of my all time favorites was the Tron suit that came out around the time the film was in theaters. One of the most popular suits of all time for the company was the Batman suit that was based on the newer film The Dark Knight. Those suits have so far sold out in two releases. The company has announced that if you want your own Batman suit, you will have a short time to order one since they are re-releasing the suit right now. The release is set to coincide somewhat with the film due next summer called The Dark Knight Rises. The suit is a real motorcycle suit that will protect the wearer in the event of a spill on their bike. It has CE-approved body armor inside, Kevlar plates, and glove liners along with other safety features. The line includes full suits with a jacket, pants, and boots. There are also two stand-alone jackets in the line. The price for a full suit is $998 and

Google Wallet has been around for a while now and we have talked about it and gone hands on with the app in the past. A major nationwide retailers has announced that it will be talking Google Wallet payments in its locations. The retailer is American Eagle Outfitters and some of the other stores under the same corporate umbrella. The other stores that will be taking Google Wallet payments are Aerie and 77Kids. The new payment program is being rolled out to locations of these stores in five major markets in the US. The markets include LA, San Francisco, Chicago, Washington D.C., and NYC. To introduce the new tech to the users in the areas at the Time Square store in NYC store associates and Google ambassadors will be there to take users on a “tapping spree.” The event will show the users how to use the service and give them loaner phones to use inside the store. The loaner phones will have a $10 gift card on them and users can find other special deals through the store. Google Walle

One of the best sci-fi shooters I have ever played is Mass Effect, I really like this game and I am looking forward to the Mass Effect 3: Galaxy at War title hitting stores. The game will see Shepard and his companions fighting the Reapers again. So far, the other two games in the franchise have been single player only, though you had other characters to help you along. The third installment of the franchise will bring with it for the first time a multiplayer system. Through Mass Effect games and applications, the player can help progress in the single player ode of the game, including increasing progress using the multiplayer system. The multiplayer features are enabled using an online pass code in the game box. Player on the PS3 and Xbox can also purchase the pass code separately to play online. The game still has four-player coop play. Gamers can select from six classes including Human, Krogan, Asari, Drell, Salarian and Turian. The game will get DLC in the future to keep player

Bose is a love it or hate it brand for a lot of audio fans. If you are a fan of the gear that the company offers, you might want to look at the new headphones that it has just debuted. The headphones include the OE2 and the OE2i offerings and both are on-ear styles. The only difference is that the OE2i are made for Apple hardware. The OE2i version has an inline remote and mic that allow you to make and receive calls with the iPhone and control tracks on iPods. The OE2 headphones have a standard audio cable for connecting to any device. Both models use the Bose TriPort design for better sound. The ear cups are tuned to give the audio a balanced and natural sound. The headphones are designed naturally for improves bass so there is no mechanical bass booster. The ear cushions are made from memory foam and conform to the user’s ear for comfort. Neither of the earphones has noise cancellation tech inside. The OE2 sell for $149.95 and the OE2i sell for $179.95 and come in black or white

If you have an HP TouchPad and have been dying to get the Android CyanogenMod onto the device you aren’t alone. You can watch the somewhat bizarre video update complete with crank calls and a weird looking Barbie doll and see what the latest inclusions and updates for the CM7 software for the TouchPad has in store. Naturally, there is still no ETA on the finished product, as the guy says in the video the CM7 mod is done when it is done. Moreover, don’t call him and ask. The latest version of the CM7 mod will support movie playback from Netflix and gaming with a demo of MineCraft playing. You can also see the live wallpaper working along with Skype calling. The latest version is still in alpha, which doesn’t give it extraordinary abilities like mind control. The alpha build is less stable than a beta, which is generally not very stable either. The long and short is that you are on your own with the software and it may not work as intended. If you still want to give it a shot, check

Panasonic has unveiled a pair of new tablets that are in the BizPad line. As the name suggests the tablets are for business users and at least for now they are only being announced for Japan. They could be announced for other countries later. The tablets differ mainly in the screen sizes they offer the BizPad JT-580VT has a 7-inch screen and the BizPad JT-581VT has a 10.1-inch screen unit. The tablets are ruggedized to some extent with the ability to survive water, shock, and dust. The 10.1-inch tablet is able to survive drops of 120cm and the 7-inch can survive drops of 80cm. The tablets share the same replaceable battery design, have NFC readers, Bluetooth, USB ports, GPS, and a microSD card slot for storage expansion. Hardware includes an ARM Cortex-A9 dual-core CPU, 1GB of RAM, 16GB of flash storage, and IR. The screen resolution for the 7-inch tablet is 1024 x 600 and it has 3G as an option. The rear camera is a 5MP unit and it sports WiFi as well. This tablet will land in Jap

If you live in London you need to run, seriously run, down to the carpark called Shoreditch car park opposite the Holiday Inn on Old St, EC1V 9LN. To celebrate the pending launch of Forza 4 20 of the most famous and impressive cars for the Forza 4 game gather together at the car park after driving in as a convoy yesterday. The cars are all there on display looking awesome and it appears The Stig is standing guard. Four of the cars in the pack are super exotics worth more than £1 million each. Those super exotic cars include the Bugatti Veyron, the carbon Pagani Zonda, McLaren F1, and a Ferrari Enzo. The cars were all provided by the London Motor Museum. The outright purchase price of the cars would total £8 million pounds. The full list of cars on display is below. • Aston Martin DBS Coupe • Aston Martin Vanquish • Audi R8 • Bentley Continental GT • Bugatti Veyron • Dodge Challenger 1970 • Dodge Charger 1969 (Hemi engine) • Ferrari 458 • Ferrari California • Ferrari Enzo

Western Digital announced yesterday that the severe flooding in Thailand has left the company unable to produce HDDs in its plants. WD was clear that the facilities it has in the country are functional, but are on hold to prevent water from getting inside. A number of WD workers are unable to get to the factory as well due to flooding. Seagate is also reporting the same issue with slowdowns at its Thailand plant. Seagate says that its plants are all functional and there are no logistical issues with its workers reaching plants. However, Seagate is warning that there are disruptions in the supply chain for the parts that it requires to make the HDDs it sells. With flooding in the region ongoing Seagate can’t predict the severity of the slow down at this time. Due to this Seagate is expecting HDD supplies to be constrained through the quarter. All of Seagate workers in the region are reportedly safe. A shortage of HDDs will drive the price of the HDDs available up and likely lead to

Microsoft held an event in India recently where it launched Windows Phone 7.5 Mango in the country. The first device that will come to India is said to be the HTC Radar. The Radar is a flagship Mango device and will hit Indian stores as early as next week. Other Mango devices including the Samsung Omnia W and Acer Allegro will come to the carrier in November according to reports. The Radar will sell for the equivalent of $485 USD in India with a 3.8-inch WVGA screen, 1GHz processor, 512MB of RAM, a 5MP rear camera, VGA front camera, and 8GB of internal storage. The Allegro is claimed to be one of the first cheap Windows Phone devices. The devices will all offer apps specifically for the Indian market. Microsoft could really use a success in India as the Windows Phone OS is barely making a dent in other markets. The latest numbers from Asymco show that Windows Phone has only 1.3% of the smartphone market and has sold only 1.4 million units as of the end of June. Apple had a million

I once went on a family vacation years ago in a camper and the coolest thing about the trip was the loft bed above the driver cabin. That motor home was a dump compared to this cool motor home from Marchi. Apparently, the photos you see here aren’t of a real motor home, but the company will build one for you if you have the loot. The name of the game with this thing is flexibility and futuristic cool. The camper has slide out sections that can be opened when needed and left closed when not needed. The RV has the requisite kitchen for cooking up your meals. The machine also has integrated communications and GPS to help you find your way. Entertainment features include satellite TV with 40-inch screens and it has integrated web connectivity for surfing the web and working. There is also a shower in the bathroom for getting clean. The whole thing looks pretty cool. It also has a 510hp engine and eight-business class lounge chairs with massage features.

Amazon Locker has quietly gone live, with the option to have orders shipped to a locker system at a local 7-Eleven or other store showing up in the address book of some customers. In Seattle, GeekWire‘s nearest store showed up as a delivery option and they caught the whole collection system on video, which you can see after the cut. As expected, the collection process is straightforward. Amazon sends an email with a pick-up code for the locker location you select during the ordering process, telling you that the parcel is ready and waiting. At the lockers, you punch in that code on the touchscreen: the display shows you which of the differently sized cubbies the package is inside, and then pops open the door. A reminder flashes up to get you to close the door. What’s not entirely clear is what happens if you accidentally close the locker before taking out everything you’ve ordered; we’re guessing the same access code won’t work a second time, unless there’s some sort of time delay

Apple is reportedly finalizing deals that will put iTunes movies in the cloud, allowing iPhone and iPad owners to stream the video content just as they can now access iTunes in the Cloud music. The service could launch as early as late 2011 or otherwise at the start of next year, the LA Times reports, with Apple’s system an alternative approach to the Ultraviolet digital locker expected to launch with “Green Lantern” and “Horrible Bosses” this week. Despite Apple’s system being a rival to Ultraviolet, several of the studios are reportedly keen to welcome the Cupertino company to the industry all the same. The existing heft of iTunes for movie sales has made it a force to be reckoned with, and insiders close to the deals say the extra focus on the segment is just what studios are looking for. Ultraviolet offers a digital copy of a purchased DVD or Blu-ray, available for streaming to DRM-compatible devices. It’s the DRM that the studios have been most concerned with, given the piracy

When I was a kid, my brother and I were always chewing gum. My brother went on this gum bender once after watching the original Willy Wonka flick at school and started sticking his gum to the bedpost. At the time, we shared a room with a big queen bed and the gum managed to fall off the bedpost into my hair. Not fun times. Some of that gum remained adhered to the headboard for as long as we had that bed. A new chewing gum is out that has gone high tech and will come off anything your kids might stick it on. It will come off the bed or even from under the table thanks to tech that allows it to mix with water. Normal gum won’t mix with water hence it stays sticky over the long haul making it hard to get off sidewalks and other places. The Rev7 gum will absorb water and turns into a fine powder in a matter of months. If you need to get it off something before the months it takes to turn into powder, it is supposed to be removable from just about any surface easily. I wonder if it will

Apple has won a preliminary sales injunction against Samsung in Australia, blocking the Galaxy Tab 10.1 from hitting store shelves and leaving the Korean company to face either a 2012 trial or scrapping the slate altogether. The federal court judge decided in favor of Apple’s claims that Samsung infringed on two patents the company holds, SMH reports, concluding “there were several factors that favoured Apple.” Samsung had previously told the court that, even though the threatened injunction was only a temporary one until a full trial could be held, the time delays involved in that would leave it no choice but to axe the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia. In missing the holiday sales season, Samsung argued, the Android slate would be “dead” on arrival. The company’s official statement makes no mention of those intentions, though does insist that the Korean firm will continue to pursue a separate claim against Apple in which Samsung alleges infringement around wireless standard patents.

When the first iPhone 4S story was written here on SlashGear announcing said device, it was entitled iPhone 4S World Phone revealed – as it turns out, that doesn’t mean the same thing to all carriers here in the United States. What we’ve got for you here is an official statement from Verizon outlining exactly how their iPhone 4S can be unlocked, just as it should be, when you’re planning on traveling abroad. On the other hand, Sprint today confirms that they have no such plans to reveal the process to unlock their iPhone 4S because with them, no such ability exists! To be doubly clear here, what owning a World Phone means in this case is that you’re supposed to be able to trade out the SIM card in your device to work with whatever carrier you like when you’re traveling abroad, for the iPhone 4S this means that, as Apple says, “whether you’re a GSM or CDMA customer, you can roam GSM networks in 200 countries around the world.” Sounds pretty convenient, yes? It certainly is if you’ve p

And what are those Star Wars characters doing there in the picture? Let me tell you, ladies and gentlemen – the cost and the characters have to do with one another, but they certainly don’t seem to be equalling out. First, you may have seen this harddrive before – the same device comes in packs with Gears of War 3 and Modern Warfare 3, amongst others. Those of you who want to get the harddrive by itself will have to pay a penny that’s much more pretty than you could have ever imagined: $130 USD. Not quite the droids we were looking for. So wait, you could get this Xbox branded harddrive with 320GB for $130 USD OR you could head to Target and get a lovely looking Seagate 320GB harddrive for less than half that price at $60. What’s the big deal here, Microsoft gaming devision, are you trying to pull the wool over our eyes? No way, man, of course not, there’s something in there that’ll blow your socks off, that’s why the HD costs so much! What is it? Do tell! It’s Lego Star Wars III

The most popular game in the history of social networking is reportedly on its way to becoming a major motion picture. This week Alec Sokolow and Joel Cohen, both of them screenwriters for the original 3D animation film breakthrough “Toy Story,” have let loose a tiny snippet of information regarding their future projects, one of them directly affiliated with Zynga, the creators of Farmville. And before you say wait, that could mean anything, take a peak and read what they say and see if you pick up the same hints we’re picking up. The writers spoke with IGN this week about several things, one of them being their future affiliation with the Zynga gaming brand. Last we heard from Zynga, they were expanding their empire to a whole new site currently called Project Z. Before that, they were launching CityVille on Google+. Now what we’re hearing, through these Toy Story screenwriters, is that there may well be not just a Zynga movie right around the bent, but a Farmville movie at that. Wh